Press Review

“Aravot” says that contrary to opposition claims, President Serzh Sarkisian gave no indications that he is going to make any “unilateral concessions” to Azerbaijan in his speech in London this week. “And since Azerbaijan, for its part, is not going to give up on its plans for territorial integrity, which are certainly aimed at driving Armenians out of Karabakh, one can predict that there will be no breakthrough here in the near future,” editorializes the paper. “It is also clear that the Turkish-Armenian normalization will fail too.” Nonetheless, it says, the Armenian parliament should ratify the Turkish-Armenian protocols without waiting for the Turks to do that first.

“Hayk” shrugs off pro-government media claims that President Serzh Sarkisian’s visit to London was a big success as it strengthened Armenia’s links with Britain. The opposition paper argues that Sarkisian’s trip was only private and that he was not met at London’s Heathrow airport by any British government official. “What is more, Serzh Sarkisian did not even meet with Great Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown,” it says, downplaying Sarkisian’s ceremonial audience with Queen Elizabeth II. “That meeting had no significance for the development of inter-state relations,” it claims.7Lragir.am looks at Armenia’s “resources” used in the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. “We can painfully see that Armenia is participating in the negotiating process only with its territorial resources,” says the online paper. “That is, we have only territories to give away and nothing else … Armenia’s resource should have probably been different. Armenia should have relied on a civilizational resource. During all these years it should have further deepened the civilizational and value-system difference between itself and Azerbaijan.”

“Iravunk” asks Hrayr Karapetian, a parliament deputy from the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), if he would welcome former President Robert Kocharian’s return to power. “I don’t care who is to be Armenia’s president,” replies Karapetian. “The most important thing is that the political line which we believe stems from our national and state interests be maintained and implemented.” He says he has so far seen no signs that Kocharian would like to make a political comeback.